11-21-24

The world is in a leadership vacuum right now….The United States of America

still holds the position of being the sole world superpower……but our nation has a

pitiful doddering out-of-touch man at the helm…and I’ll be honest, sometimes I

feel like our state….Alabama….is in the same boat….and make no mistake,

vacuums do not stay empty….in the absence of strong elected executive

leadership, meaning a President or a Governor, in the absence of someone strongly

holding those roles someone will arise to fill the vacuum….sometimes its a non-

elected bureaucrat, or a member of the body from another branch, or a member of

society who is able to speak into the moment….but it is not the will of the people

per se…..when elected executive branch leadership abdicates, hides, or folds, their

role is filled by unelected leaders and that’s not always good…..

The world can see that the Biden administration is one big empty suit…..at the

recent G20 Summit Biden was backbenched….he is not just a lame duck, now hie

is just tolerated……press reports show that he missed major photo ops with other

world leaders, press was kept back from his podium…..he looked tired and

defeated……the world can see that Biden has no concern for our own nation’s

borders……the whole world is watching as Biden accelerates war in Ukraine half

a world away….. I am extremely pessimistic……..

Do you remember the movie “Patton”……George C. Scott famously played

General George Patton……and one scene in that book (which was true by the way)

had Patton reading German Field Marshall Rommel’s own book on tank

warfare……and in the second battle of Kasserine Pass in North Africa Patton put a

whooping on Rommel……and jumped up and yelled “Rommel, you magnificent

SOB…..I read your book!

Well, the world’s bad actors have read Biden’s book…..we all have…..I don’t have

to look far to get an idea of how President Biden handles foreign policy

crises……remember he was already a part of the White House leadership when he

served as Barack Obama’s Vice President……and in 2011 an Obama White House

official coined the phrase “leading from behind” to describe then President

Obama’s Libya policy…..that would be the same lead from behind policy that

resulted in a complete power vacuum in the wake of the overthrow of terrorist

dictator Mohmar Qaddafi…..and even more infamously the attack on the US

Consulate in Benghazi that saw our Ambassador and several other brave men

killed……for many of us “Benghazi ain’t going away”…….

During that same administration the notion of leading from behind got us the great

Russian reset with then Sec. of State Hillary Clinton that caused the US to reduce

its arms while Moscow did nothing……in that same vein Russian annexed the

Crimean peninsula unchallenged and US – Russian relations went south……that

same “lead from behind” strategy under Obama-Biden caused the US to pull out of

Iraq abruptly……on a timetable and not on a boots on the ground conditions based

withdrawal…..as a result we came close to losing the Iraqi government and saw the

rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria that caused a resurgence of troops to that region…..

“Leading from Behind” saw the Obama- Biden administration enter into massively

lopsided deals contrary to US interests ……..a climate deal with China where they

might stop increasing carbon emissions……a nuclear deal with Iran that caused the

US to ship pallets of cash to the Ayatollahs and gain nothing but platitudes from a

government that still to this day calls for death to the US and Israel……

National Security and Foreign Policy Expert James Jay Carafano wrote for the

Heritage Foundation in 2015 that the Obama-Biden “lead from behind” strategy

put the US into full retreat on the world stage…….

And now there’s “President Biden”………he’s the man……the Commander in

Chief…..the leader of the free world…… my concern is that he brought the

checker board to the chess match…….Biden continues to lead from behind…..

As much as I hate to say it I also feel much the same about Alabama’s current

Governor, Kay Ivey…..I’ve known Kay Ivey personally for over a decade….we

campaigned together, we served together, I love her as a person but I’m struggling

to point to her accomplishments for the past several years as a

Governor…..questions abound about her health….a few weeks ago medics had to

be called as she grew faint at an event……the Governors staff keep her

sequestered and she is typically only out for ribbon cuttings and scripted events….I

watch as our neighboring states have governors like Ron DeSantis, Tate Reeves,

Bill Lee, and Brian Kemp who, like them or not, get out front and push for policy,

and lead on their platform issues…..when is the last time you saw Governor Ivey

seem to lead from a heartfelt out-front position…..giving a scripted speech to the

Rotary Club of Birmingham is not the same thing as leading on the issues of the

day…….issuing a press release is not the same as lobbying for principled

policy…… Unfortunately Governor Ivey is leading from behind…..

Harvard Business Review published a piece ten years ago on leading from

behind……in that overly rosy piece the author tried to make leading from behind

sound a bit more glossy……even quoting Nelson Mandela…… the quote states

“In his autobiography, Mandela equated a great leader with a shepherd: “He stays

behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others

follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”

Neat…..but this is not that……there are no “nimble” others prepared to butt heads

with Russia and China……there are no Alabama Governor shining moments in the

spotlight inspiring Alabama constituents…..none. …….it is always possible to find

others who will fill a leadership void…..any leader ……ANY leader…..worth their

salt is NOT going to impress, engage, and win the day by standing in the back and

egging others on to do that which we are unwilling to do on our own…….no…..

that’s not leadership from behind…..that’s fecklessness…..plain and simple…..

The current President does not inspire confidence….the current President has a

legacy of hosing foreign policy and still pretending that it is his strong suit…..the

current President is a demoralizing example of what happens when someone is

elected on personality with no real inkling of his ability to effect policy…

remember that I’ve said on this show many times that Joe Biden has had the luxury

of never being in charge of anything in his entire adult life…..he has enjoyed the

privilege of rhetoric without responsibility……the same man who was VP for

some of the most awful decisions on the world stage……Iran, Libya, Iraq,

Afghanistan, Crimea, North Korea, ……..is still clinging to the helm for the big

game with every single one of those hot spots still testing him…..because they’ve

read his book…..and it ain’t good……

And Alabama?.....Alabama is still listed as one of the reddest states in the

nation….where cost of living is better than most of the country…..where business

journals continue to rank us as one of the best places in the nation to establish a

new business…..a state with one of the highest per capita rates of veterans among

its population……with mountains and lakes in the north, fertile plains in the

center, and white sandy beaches in the south……a place with massive potential

that is begging for out-front gunslinging leadership……

In two months a new President takes the reins in DC…….and believe it or not, in a

mere six months the race for Governor of Alabama opens up its primary

season…..keep your eyes open……leadership matters…..leadership vacuums will

be filled……and we deserve strong out front leadership……

No more of this feckless leading from behind……

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!